Anyone else think the rethugs will just try to run out the clock?

[nitetalker]

Like many DUers I don't foresee the rethugs allowing an orderly tranfer of power.

Anyone else think the rethugs will try to run out the clock and force the prez election to the House of Reps?

This is the scenario I'm envisioning:

1. The election is held on schedule and Kerry appears to win.


2. The next day the rethugs contest as many Blue states as they need to keep Kerry's certified electoral vote count under 270 and furthermore less than *'s number.


3. With enough recounts, court challenges, and other stalling tactics, so much time passes that the election is thrown to the House.


4. The rethug majority in the House elects *.


5. Kerry doesn't contest the outcome "to avoid a constitutional crisis".

Another long, drawn-out media orgy with the same gut-wrenching outcome as 2000.
:(

[Warpy]

1. Theoretically possible, I suppose, but not likely

There would be a huge outcry about that one, and uneasy would lie the head that wore the crown. The recounts would still go on, and as long as they were done by 1/20, Bush would still be out on his bum.

In fact, if the little weasel tries and succeeds at something like this, he will still be out on his bum. He's lost the military, the FBI, the CIA, and much of his own party. There is no way he can hang on for another 4 years. Expect an impeachment or intervention by the military if he tries.

[KurtNYC]

3. Yes, even if Dems are ineffective

Bush messed with factions within his party, the pentagon and the intelligence community.

[Mountainman]

2. Nothing that anyone can think up here is out of the question for me.

I have always thought that if PNACers and conservative ideologues get in power they surely won't want to give it up after having it only for 4 years.

I believe the right is capable of anything we could dream up here.

It really worries me at times. I just don't feel we will have a fair election again.

[SheilaT]

4. It won't be as overt as that,

but there are many ways along those lines that could be used to keep Bush in power.

One would be for a couple of states which have Republican controlled legislatures (Florida comes to mind) but where the popular vote goes to Kerry, however the legislatures certify the Republican slate of electors.

Keep in mind, we not only don't directly elect the president, but we're actually two removes from the process: we vote for a slate of electors in November, but each state's legislature certifies that slate. Remember, the Florida lawmakers were making it crystal clear in early December that they quite frankly did not care how any recount came out, nor how a Supreme Court decision went, they were going to certify the Republican electors, plain and simple.

It is true that since there is currently a Republican majority in both houses, any election thrown to Congress will not result in Kerry becoming president. Unless something happens as did in the summer of 1974 when Republicans began going to Dick Nixon and telling him the time had come to resign. In today's far more polarized climate, I don't really see that happening.

Another way to keep Bush in the White House is if polling during the last few weeks is all over the place, one poll showing Kerry ahead, another showing Bush, yet another showing it too close to call. And what if those polls indicate it's hard to tell which voters will actually turn out. So we'd then go into election day with enormous uncertainty, which would make many people far more willing to put up with anomalous results.

Or how about a couple of relatively minor, but otherwise strategic power surges in certain precincts. The vote was expected to be close, but now the electronic machines show a small majority in Bush's favor. Again, a relatively small number of those in the right places, and Bush "wins".

There are several others even I can think of, and probably more effective ones I'm not. Just don't look for anything obvious. I got VERY worried once the trial balloon was floated about delaying or cancelling the election. That didn't fly, so you really, really don't need to worry about that one. But what you do need to worry about is the scenario that none of us are thinking of right now.

[donco6]

5. I've wondered about this myself.

It is possible.

[w4rma]

6. If there is a trick, and they think they can get away with it. They will

likely do it, imho. They *will* do *anything* to keep the power they have taken.

[MallRat]

7. The election is not sent to the House if state outcomes are pending.

n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. Yes-

And you can't challenge a vote unless you are less than .05% behind in most states...



Sometimes I think folks on this site live in a parallel universe....

9. A parallel paranoid universe

(how can I say this without getting my post deleted- but it should be said}

Where some have nothing better to do but worry worry worry, and where they fall victim to the same ideology as they see in their enemies.

Mirror image thinking essentially.